Oklahoma Ghost Towns 8. Cornish (Jefferson County)
Founded in the 1880s as a trade center in the Chickasaw Nation, Cornish was best known as the site of the Cornish Orphans Home. A private philanthropic project, the home was started in 1907 by Mose E. Harris, a local man who loved children. Though not rich, he and his wife started raising money and putting up buildings on a payas-you-go basis, and contributions came in from all over the state and even from the Oklahoma Legislature. The home cared for more than 1,500 children until it ceased to operate in the mid 1950s--a period of almost half a century. Cornish itself lost most of its residents to surrounding boomtowns in 1916. The largest building of the old orphanage still stands. Located south of Ringling.
9. Cromwell (Seminole County)
Noted U.S. marshall Bill Tilghman was asked to come out of retirement and become the chief of police of the lawless new oil boomtown of Cromwell in 1926. After the 1923 strike in the Greater Seminole field, Cromwell became known as the "wickedest" city in the world with open disregard of the law and untold numbers of robberies and murders. Though past age 70, Tilghman accepted the challenge. On the night of October 30 he was shot dead by a corrupt federal prohibition agent, Wiley Lynn. Lynn fled town, along with most of the gamblers and others under his protection (he was soon thereafter killed in a brawl), and the resulting wave of public anger started a crusade against crime. However, oil production began declining that year, and a devastating fire almost burned out the town, which was built of dry, oil-soaked wood and canvas. Most businesses never rebuilt. The population, which had soared to as high as 10,000 in 1925, had dropped to less than 300 by 1930. Located northeast of Seminole off 1-40.
10. Doaksville (Choataw County)
Josiah S. Doak and his brother were among the soonest of Sooners when they moved into the Choctaw Nation in 1820 before most of the Choctaws. After the U.S. Choctaw treaty called Doak's Stand,the Doaks anticipated the tribe's western move, navigating up the Mississippi and Red rivers to set up a trading post near the mouth of the Kiamichi River. After Fort Towson was built nearby, the store and many of the settlers moved closer to it and started Doaksville. Large numbers of Choctaws settled there, and by 1840 it had five large stores and the Choctaw Intelligencer newspaper, printed in both English and Choctaw. River traders brought goods to Doaksville in exchange for tallow, pelts, bear grease and cotton grown by Indians. Doaksville was also one of the stations where Indians collected their annuities (rations) as well as an important
political center. In 1850 Doaksville became the capital of theChoctaw Nation. The Choctaw Convention of 1860 drafted the Doaksville Constitution. The capital was moved in 1863, and when the Civil War ended, General Stand Watie came to Doaksville and was the last Confederate general to surrender. After the war, the cotton trade declined because of the lack of slave labor, and new forts and towns farther west drew trade. The town struggled on until the post office closed in 1903. Today very little remains except the cemetery. Located northwest of Fort Towson.
11. Eagletown (McCurtain County)
Initially called Eagle or Eagle Town, this is one of the oldest settlements in Oklahoma. Thousands of early Choctaws following the Fort Towson road found plentiful wild game, good fishing, a water supply, and comfortable campgrounds where the road crossed the Mountain Fork River. It quickly became one of the first densely settled ~]:(~as in the new Choctaw Nation. Eagletown never had a town square or a business district, but it did have a government station for ration annuities, plenty of fertile land, a mission school, a post office, and a general store. By 1850 it had become the seat of Eagle County in the Choctaw Nation. After the Civil War, Jefferson Gardner, later a principal chief, started a store and trading post, and built a residence that is now a museum. When the railroad and highways bypassed the area the population declined to near zero. "Execution Rock" can still be seen at the site. Located east of Broken Bow off US-70.
